I’ve had the great pleasure of writing about Newport Beach politics for the past seven years. And during this entire time, I’ve had to repeatedly dispel the notion that Newport Beach is the most conservative city in California.

But according to the Sacramento Bee, and a subsequent column by Martin Wisckol at the O.C. Register, 60 percent of Newport’s voters have described themselves as conservative.

That makes Newport the most conservative out of the state’s 150 biggest cities.

Hear that? That’s me falling out of my chair in laughter. So three out of every five Newport Beach voters are calling themselves conservatives. Apparently, they’ve forgotten that when they get to the ballot box.

Unless, of course, it’s a conservative notion to elect every union-backed candidate, who then gives wondrous compensations and benefits to their public employees. That includes the full-time lifeguards who peak upward of $200,000 a year, with 51-year-olds retiring at $108,000 a year for the rest of their lives.

In what world would a council candidate be considered conservative for actively pursuing the endorsement of the Newport Beach labor unions (associations), which then unabashedly donate to and support liberal candidates in other races? Yet, every single republican (small “r”) on the Newport Beach City Council has sought and received contributions from both the city’s police and fire associations.

In addition, these so-called conservatives voted to transform a $40 million City Hall into a $144 million Taj Mahal, complete with $250,000 concrete bunnies, a $2 million zinc-covered bridge to the dog park and $1,000-plus office chairs; adding tens of thousands of dollars to the budget just for good measure to give the architects opportunities to win design awards.

Oh yes, and borrowing every red cent to do it, creating a long-term debt obligation for future generations to enjoy, alongside the modern sculptures.

Tax and spend to build a larger house for government – that’s a conservative notion, right? I thought conservatives were for low debt and smaller government?

Later, the tax-(called fees in Newport Beach)-and-spend City Council raised the city’s mooring fees exponentially, charging commercial dock owners a percentage of the gross income, as well as increasing four-fold the fees paid by residential dock owners to use their own docks.

Mayor Rush Hill cursed at his constituents when they dared to challenge his excellence.

Since 2003, with only a 7 percent increase in population, Newport Beach’s budget has ballooned 172 percent, from $110 million to $280 million in 2014. Its unfunded pension liability is the highest per resident in Orange County, and Newport Beach still has an extremely high ratio of full-time-equivalent employees per resident.

As a full-service city, having lots of city employees is expected, but when comparing Newport Beach, with 87,000 residents, to neighboring Huntington Beach, it’s downright embarrassing.

Newport needs almost twice as many city employees per resident than does Huntington Beach.

Even Newport Beach’s City Council has more members (seven) than neighboring Irvine, Costa Mesa and Laguna Beach, each with five. Huntington Beach, with its larger population of 197,000, also has seven members.

But perhaps that’s why, in its 108 years of existence, the Newport Beach City Council has never had one of its own elected to higher office. In a typically conservative voting district, Newport Beach council members were never conservative enough.

Although Newport Beach’s voters may consider themselves conservative, their City Council is anything but. I could go on forever.

Jack Wu is an accountant who lives in Newport Beach and has been a longtime Republican Party activist. Contact him at jack@wubell.com.

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.